Semester 2009A Call For Proposals

Gemini Observatory invites its community to propose scientific investigations for the 2009A semester,
1 February 2009 - 31 July 2009. The Call is open to all partners.

The submission deadline is TUESDAY SEPTEMBER
30TH 2008 for all partners. Applications should be submitted via your national Gemini
proposal process. Submission times and other details vary by partner; please consult your National Gemini Office pages for more information. Joint
proposals must adhere to the deadline (and other requirements) applicable to the partner country of the
institution to which the Principal Investigator is affiliated.

The purpose of this page is to highlight the most relevant information
for the 2009A call. Significant additional information is
contained on supporting pages; users are encouraged to follow the
links for more detailed information. If hardcopy is preferred, the
primary pages are available in a single 15 page pdf document.

Highlights for 2009A

General

Relevant milestones for 2009A can be found in the 2009A schedule. The deadline for Phase I submission is
September 30th 2008 (Poor weather and Director's Discretionary Time proposals are also both accepted at
any time via the Phase I Tool),
and for successful proposals the Phase II submission deadline is January 16th 2009.

The Phase I Tool (PIT) is updated for 2009A; See the
PIT page for downloads and important
information. New features include: improved handling of non-sidereal target coordinates,
a check that the Band 3 constraints are equal to or worse than the default observing constraints (if
band 3 is acceptable), and enabling PhD students to be identified.

Target
accessibility limits will be imposed, so as not to bias the queue at the start or end of the
semester. For unrestricted access, targets for Gemini North which do not use the Laser Guide Star
system should be limited to 7 < RA < 22, and -30 < dec < +73, and for Gemini South targets
should be limited to 7 < RA < 23, and -87 < dec < +22. Other regions are available,
but only for short observations, or those with very relaxed observing constraints.
The Laser Guide System has more restricted constraints. Michelle, T-ReCS and NICI have further
restrictions on availablity and Right Ascension in 2009A.

Starting in 2009A, Rapid
Targets of Opportunity can interrupt classical-mode nights, unless the classical observation is time-critical.
Time will be reimbursed to the interrupted program during queue time with similar conditions to the interrupted time.

Mask making from non-GMOS images for GMOS
multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) observations is available,
but GMOS pre-imaging is recommended for
MOS programs using slits narrower than 1.0" and
for programs requiring very long observations of faint targets.

The Laser Guide System (LGS) is fully commissioned for NIRI and NIFS. LGS
observations must specify "Laser
guide star" in the Adaptive Optics resources section in the PIT, and must
request Cloud Cover = 50% and Image Quality = 70%. Faint tip tilt stars will also require darker skies:
17.5 < R < 18 needs SB=80%, 18 < R < 18.5 needs SB=50%.
Because of the limited availability
and the need for good weather, only LGS programs ranked in bands 1 and 2 will be recommended by the
ITAC. Up to 200 hours will be available in 2009A for LGS queue observations
(LGS mode is expected to be available 7-14 nights per month).

Gemini South

Including
NICI campaign science, 70% of the semester is expected
to be available for science, or 127 nights distributed across the
partnership. A list of offered instruments and capabilities is given below. Due to the need to balance the queue, and the
traditionally high demand for GMOS-S dark time programs, bright time programs on Gemini South are
particularly encouraged.

NICI, the AO-fed Near-Infrared
Coronagraphic Imager, will be available to the community for the first time
in 2009A on a "shared risk" basis. NICI commissioning is on-going at the
time of this Call however it is performing well, and the NICI planet search campaign
is expected to begin in 2008B. See
below for more details.

Exchange

Up to 5 bright/gray
nights of classical time is available with the HIRESoptical spectrograph
on Keck. The requested nights must be within the following windows: 12 - 18 February (up
to 2
nights), 10 - 17 March (up to 2 nights) and 8 - 14 July (up to 1 night). Requests must be
full nights with a minimum of 1 night. Proposals should be submitted via the normal
process. All proposers for Keck time must also complete the Keck cover page. Email this page
to your NTAC chair. [more
information]

4 to 6 classical
nights are available on Subaru with Suprime-Cam(wide field optical imager) and MOIRCS
(near-infrared imager and multi-object spectrograph). The requested nights must be within
the
following windows: 24 - 30 March (dark, up to 2 nights), 15 - 21 April (grey, up to 2 nights), 10 -
16 June (bright, up to 2 nights). Requests must be full nights with a minimum of 1
night. Proposals should be submitted via the normal process. [more
information]

Additional Information

Details of the capabilities available at
each telescope are given below. Please see the page of supporting information for
additional general information.

Gemini North: Facilities

All instruments are offered in queue and
classical
mode, except for Laser Guide Star AO which is queue mode only.

Facility instruments:

GMOS North
- 0.36-1.10 micron imager and
spectrograph: imaging and long-slit, multi-object and integral field spectroscopy.
5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately R=26 for imaging and R=21-23 for spectroscopy.

NIRI
- 1-5 micron imager and low-resolution spectrograph: imaging and spectroscopy fed
with the direct or AO-corrected beam. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately
K=23 for imaging and K=18 for spectroscopy. NIRI is likely to be unavailable in July 2009.

NIFS - 0.95-2.40 micron integral
field unit spectrograph: IFU spectroscopy fed with the direct or AO-corrected beam. 5σ one
hour point source sensitivities are approximately K=18.7. NIFS is expected to be available from
February 2009 to mid-June 2009.

Altair - facility AO
system: for
use with NIRI (except M band imaging and L & M band spectroscopy) and NIFS.

See the target accessibility page for important information regarding
instrument availability and a plot of accessible RA and Declination. For Semester 2009A targets
should be limited to
7 < RA < 22, and -30 < dec < +73, the LGS system has a
stricter elevation constraint of >40 degrees.

Gemini South: Facilities

GMOS South
- 0.36-1.10 micron imager and spectrograph: imaging and long-slit, multi-object and integral
field spectroscopy. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately R=26 for imaging and
R=21-23 for spectroscopy. GMOS South has slightly better sensitivity in the UV and blue than GMOS
North.

NICI - 1-5 micron dual-channel coronagraphic
imager: In 2009A NICI is
offered for limited community use in a shared risk mode, using
on-axis AO-fed imaging with or without the coronagraph.
Due to ongoing commissioning at the time of this call,
only limited sensitivity and other instrument information is available, and
is subject to change. Please read the NICI
web pages carefully. Up to 150 hours will be available between
February 2009 and April 2009.
NICI targets should be limited to 6:00 < RA hrs <
18:00. For 2009A,
science targets must be closer than 1 parsec or farther than 200 parsecs
away, due to uncertainty in the NICI campaign targets at the time of this Call.

Phoenix - 1-5 micron high spectral
resolution (R~50000 - 75000) spectrometer. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are
approximately K=12.5. It is likely that 2009A will be the last
semester that Phoenix will be available on Gemini.

See the target
accessibility page for important information regarding instrument availability and a plot of
accessible RA and Declination. For Semester 2009A targets should be limited to 7 < RA < 23,
and -87 < dec < +22.

Questions and Answers

All questions concerning proposals, or any other subject, should be
made using the Gemini
HelpDesk. This web-based
system will send the request to your National Gemini Office staff in
the first instance
who will then escalate it to Gemini staff if necessary.

Comments and suggestions on the format
and content of this page and supporting pages are welcome, and should be sent
to Sandy Leggett.